Economic Hardship Deferment

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon,

I am currently considering applying for a deferment of my wife's school loan payment.  My biggest concern is it having an effect on her (or our) FICO scores, which are both close to 800.  How does this work?  Will it lower our scores?  Has anyone had experience with this and did it lower your FICO scores?  Thanks in advance for the help!

Keith

[Anonymous]

As long as you're not behind on the loans when the deferment goes into effect, I don't think it has any impact at all.  I've had other things impacting my scores when I've done a deferral, so I can't say for sure about the actual score.  However, it does not show a reason for the deferral, so you won't get dinged for "economic hardship".  And now, well after the deferral (one year plus), it does not show a gap in payment--it shows "OK" for all of the months that I was in deferral.

You can also check with the student loan company and ask them how they report it.  I was dealing with Sallie Mae.

[SCF]

Hey Keith,

I consolidated 5 Stafford loans into one Federal Consolidation loan through Citibank and moved them immediately into an economic hardship deferment in December and my scores have not taken a hit. I did this within my grace period after graduating, so I've never actually made any payments, but all of the loans still show "Pays as agreed" and haven't dinged my score which is still at ~750. I've also applied for and received CCs from Citi, Chase and BofA, all of which went to the 30 day review status before they came through, so I'm thinking that even with a person looking at my report (or a computer giving it a second look) those loans aren't getting in my way.

If you need the deferment and you're eligible, I'd say take it.

[Anonymous]

it shouldn't lower your score at all...atleast mine didn't.  you're ok.